Category Archives: Dub-Step

Although Internet Explorer is the slowest internet browser on the face of the planet (or at least in my experience), it has done one thing right recently. It ran a commercial with great music. Music that I wasn’t aware existed until a few months ago and now am in love with. More specifically, the music of Alex Clare, a British musician that released his first demo this past June.

If you have watched TV or TV shows on the internet recently, you have heard bits and pieces of his song “Too Close” in Explorer’s attempt to remarked themselves as a “more beautiful web,” what ever that means. But I advise listening to the whole song. The build-up from a very soulful sound to the drop is amazing. Plus the video is great, although not seemingly related to the theme of the song, which is friendship that became a little too much. If you have any ideas about how the video fits with this theme, please share!

My favorite song of Clare’s though is “Treading Water.” Like one of my other favorite songs at the moment (“Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye–hopefully a post on that in a few days), the song to me is about someone that is still hung up on his last relationship and thus is failing in his present relationship. Although I can’t really relate to this message, the imagery in the video and Clare’s voice are so powerful that I can’t help but love it.

Interestingly, Clare used to date the late Amy Winehouse. I think it is a travesty that they never made any music together because they both have these rich voices perfect for soul/R&B that I think would work perfectly together.

So thank you Internet Explorer for surprisingly doing something right. And although IE9 might be better than IE8, I stick with Firefox or Chrome.

So, I promised you an amazing remix last post. And I hope you will not be disappointed.

I am not that big on classical music on my blog. I listen to it infrequently, mostly only when I am studying. I have never found that I can connect with it the same way I can connect with rock or electronic music. However, Lindsey Stirling has found a way to combine the sound of one of the most classical sounding instruments–the violin–with a ton of different musical genres. I first found her music through her Lord of the Rings Medley.

Now, I was and still am a huge fan of LOTR. I mean, in sixth grade I had a map of Middle Earth on my desk with “the One Ring” and basically every single book Tolkien had ever written. My obsession for LOTR is now confined to one shelf, but I still get extremely emotional when I hear the music or watch the movies. This video had me transported to Middle Earth both through the music and the visuals.

Plus, I am so jealous of Lindsey in this video because she is in New Zealand, one of my bucket list destinations. Okay, I am totally jealous of her because she can sing, dance, and play the violin amazingly. And she is beautiful on top of everything else.

You are probably asking yourself right now, “so where is the remix? I mean, a medley of LOTR’s songs doesn’t count as a remix.” Well, in this post I am doing sort of a meta-interpretation of the idea of remix. I believe that Lindsey is “remixing” genres. She writes violin music for all different musical genres and sort of adds something foreign but beautiful to each one. Is it a stretch? Probably. But wait until you hear her dubstep violin song. Yes, you read correctly. Dubstep Violin. And it is so well done, I could literally listen to this all day without getting bored.

And the way she moves. When she pirouettes at around :35 …amazing. It also helps that the location of her videos are breath-taking along with her music. And her outfits, her creativity with sound. Basically I could go on about how many reasons I now love Lindsey Stirling. If she doesn’t make it big soon, there is something extremely wrong with the music industry today.

And make sure to check out some of her other stuff. “Crystallize” is my favorite song of her’s but I have yet to find one I dislike.

What other instruments would you love being featured in modern music today that are not?